Woman plunges down garbage chute in search of her false teeth

July 25, 1991|By Elisha King | Elisha King,Evening Sun Staff

"I started praying, 'Lord, get me out of here!'" Sandy Lifsey said. "And I was hollering to my friend Linda to pull me out."

The reason city resident Sandy Lifsey, 29, was praying and hollering yesterday was that she fell down a trash incinerator chute while searching for a partial dental plate she had accidentally dropped down the chute while emptying her garbage.

Firefighters rescued her about 9:20 a.m. with hardly a scratch.

Lifsey lives on the 11th floor of 200 Aisquith St. After she emptied the garbage and saw her upper dental plate fall on top of the garbage, she decided to retrieve it.

She said she leaned in, became stuck, then fell headfirst from the 9th floor into the chute, which runs from the basement to the 12th floor.

"When we got there we could see the top of her head," said a firefighter from Engine Company 32.

Firefighters went to the 10th floor and lowered a rope to Lifsey and lifted her to safety.